Jerry Finkelstein

Jerry Finkelstein (26 January 1916-28 November 2012) was an American publisher, businessman, and politican insider. He was known to be an important powerbroker in New York politics, and he was a lifelong Democratic Party member.

Biography
Jerry Finkelstein was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York in 1916, and he graduated from law school in 1938. However, instead of taking the bar exam, he became a journalist for the New York Daily Mirror, and he founded The Civil Service Leader in 1939. In 1942, he attempted to run for the State Senate as a Democratic Party member, but he was defeated. He became a Democratic aide during the 1940s, and he opened a public relations firm in 1955. In 1961, he became chairman of Struthers Wells, and he purchased the New York Law Journal in 1963 for $1 million. In 1972, he was made Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by his ally, Republican Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, whose gubernatorial and presidential campaigns Finkelstein had supported. He died in 2012 at his home in Manhattan at the age of 96.